Recommendations for a drawing program

[a70duster]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a simple drawing program. The application is for simple electrical schematics. The ideal program would allow me to import scanned in schematics as a "background" and allow me to add to the existing schematic.

This program will be used by other not-so-computer-savvy employees, so the easier to use, the better.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

 

[borgunit]

Autosketch from Autodesk might be of some use to you.

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." — Will Rogers

 

[ACtrafficengr]

I haven't used Visio in some years, but it used to be good for sketches.

If you need more precision, QuickCad is a good low-end CAD system. It's cheap, easy to use, and good enough for many applications.

------------------------------------------
"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail."

Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

 

[a70duster]

Thanks for the input. I found a program called SmartDraw that I think will fit the bill. And it is free to try for 30 days.

http://www.smartdraw.com/exp/dia/home/

 

[loosestring]

AutoCAD would work fine for that I'm sure, if you have about $3,500 to spend... If you need something quick and easy you may look into the GIMP which is a raster based program. It would be good enough for simple electrical schematics and it's a free open source program.

http://www.thegimp.org

Inkscape is another free vector based program that may work as well. It's also open source.
There is also an open source cadd software called PythonCAD, but i have not tried it before so I don't know if it would work. I believe it does not run on Windows.

http://www.pythoncad.org/

 

[Fruz]

Mike,

Which program did you find best, as I am currently looking for a simple program myself. I want to do simple sketches.

I like to use autocad, but just can not afford the cost.

Thanks
Peter

 

[felixc]

Maybe that IntelliCAD fills the bill? They claim a full compatibility with AutoCAD and it sells for $150.

 

[Ashereng]

I use visio, especially for sketches.

One thing I really like is that you can draw to scale.